World news in brief, 7/25

BEIJING — A man who was told by officials they couldn't register his fourth child because he didn't pay a penalty for breaking China's family planning laws stabbed to death two government workers and injured four others, state media and an official said.

Footage of police trying to subdue the man outside a family planning office in southern China's Guangxi region while he still brandished a machete was widely available on Chinese news websites and shared on social media Wednesday.

The incident this week is one of a string of grievances against symbols of authority in China that have turned violent in recent months. It also illustrates how disliked China's family planning limits are, more than 30 years after their introduction limited most urban couples to one child and rural families to two.

Many comments on China's Twitterlike sites voiced sympathy for the man and their opposition to the one-child policy, with some calling on the government to get rid of it.

A family planning official said Wednesday that a man and a woman at the office died in the attack and four other workers were injured, including a woman who had her right hand cut off. The official from the Family Planning Commission of Fangchenggang city said the suspect was certified as mentally disabled.

Lebanon

Hezbollah says EU blacklist ‘worthless'

BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah on Wednesday ridiculed a European Union decision to place the group's military wing on a terrorism list, accusing the body of capitulating to U.S. and Israeli pressures by blacklisting it.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the decision is "worthless" and makes EU countries partners in any future Israeli aggression against Lebanon or his militant group.

The EU's 28 foreign ministers made the announcement Monday after prolonged diplomatic pressure from the U.S. and Israel, which consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

"I did not feel for one moment that this was a sovereign European decision, but rather one that was dictated to them," Nasrallah said, speaking to supporters in Beirut via satellite link.

Pakistan

Militants attack spy agency, killing 3

KARACHI — Militants armed with guns and explosives attacked a compound Wednesday that houses a regional office of Pakistan's top spy agency, killing three people and wounding more than three dozen others, officials said.

The attack started when a suicide bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into a wall of the government compound in Sukkur district in southern Sindh province, intelligence officials said. A second suicide bomber blew himself up inside the compound, while three colleagues battled security forces with guns and hand grenades, the officials said.

Three people were killed and 37 wounded, said Javid Odho, a deputy inspector general of police. All five attackers died as well, he said.